Ukraine Says Its Troops Make Breakthrough In Rebel Stronghold As Russian Weapons Pour In

KIEV/DONETSKUkraine (Reuters)
- Ukrainian forces have raised their national flag over a police
station in the city of Luhansk which was for months
under rebel control, Kiev said on Sunday, in
what could be a breakthrough in Ukraine's efforts to crush
pro-Moscow separatists.

Ukrainian officials said however the rebels were fighting a
desperate rearguard action to hold on to Luhansk -
which is their supply route into neighbouring Russia -
and that the flow of weapons and fighters
from Russia had accelerated.

The foreign ministers
of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany were
meeting in Berlin and German Foreign
Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said talks would focus
on how to achieve a ceasefire and prevent weapons and fighters
crossing into eastern Ukraine.

"The news from today shows that we are far from an end to the
conflict. People are still dying. We have no ceasefire. We are
far away from a political solution," Steinmeier said before the
meeting.

Russia denies helping the rebels and accuses Kiev,
backed by the West, of triggering a humanitarian crisis through
indiscriminate use of force against Russian speakers
in eastern Ukraine who reject the Ukrainian
government's rule.

Andriy Lysenko, a Ukrainian military spokesman, said government
forces fought separatists in Luhansk on Saturday and
took control of the Zhovtneviy neighbourhood police station.

"They raised the state flag over it," Lysenko said.

Separatist officials in Luhansk could not be reached by
telephone, and a separatist spokeswoman in Donetsk, the
other rebel strong-hold, said she had no information
about Luhansk.

A photograph posted on Twitter appeared to show a Ukrainian flag
on the front of the police station, but it could not be
independently verified. pic.twitter.com/fhzEPyUpMp

If confirmed, the taking of the police station is significant
because Luhansk has for several months been a rebel
redoubt where Kiev's writ has not run. Separatists still
control sections of the border linking Luhansk region
to Russia.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced another
military success, saying his forces had recaptured a railway
junction at Yasynuvata, north of Donetsk, which he said had
"strategic significance”.

CRITICAL PHASE

The four-month-old conflict in Ukraine's Russian-speaking
east has reached a critical phase, with Kiev and
Western governments watching nervously to see
if Russia will intervene in support of the increasingly
besieged rebels.

The rebels responded with defiant rhetoric and fighting.

Ukrainian authorities said on Sunday the separatists shot down a
Ukrainian warplane.

On Saturday, Alexander Zakharchenko, prime minister of the
self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, said rebels
were in the process of receiving some 150 armoured vehicles,
including 30 tanks, and 1,200 fighters trained in Russia. He
said they planned to launch a major counter-offensive.

"They are joining at the most crucial moment," he said in a video
recorded on Friday.

The assertion that the fighters were trained
in Russia is awkward for Moscow, which has
repeatedly denied allegations from Kiev and its Western
allies that it is providing material support to separatist
fighters.

"We have repeatedly said that we don't supply any equipment
there," said Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian
President Vladimir Putin.

Russian servicemen drive a
military vehicle along a road outside Kamensk-Shakhtinsky near
the border with Ukraine, Rostov Region, August 17, 2014.REUTERS/Alexander
Demianchuk

CONVOY

The Ukraine crisis has dragged relations
between Russia and the West to their lowest point since
the Cold War and set off a round of trade restrictions that are
hurting struggling economies in
both Russia and Europe.

Adding to the
tensions, Russia and Ukraine have been at
loggerheads for days over a convoy of 280 Russian trucks carrying
water, food and medicine.

It was despatched by Moscow bound for eastern
Ukraine but has been parked up for several days
in Russia near the border.

Kiev has said the convoy could be a Trojan Horse
for Russia to get weapons to the rebels, a notion
that Moscow has dismissed as absurd. It said the aid is
desperately needed by civilians left without water and power and
under constant bombardment from the Ukrainian advance.

After days of wrangling between Kiev and Moscow,
there were signs of movement on Sunday.

Sixteen trucks separated from the main convoy and drove into a
Russian bus depot near a border crossing into Ukraine, a
Reuters cameraman said from the scene.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said that
Russian and Ukrainian officials had agreed that the cargo could
be inspected but had yet to agree on security arrangements.

"We will see this evening if the final obstacles can be
overcome," said Germany's Steinmeier. "It would be good if
this humanitarian aid could arrive where it is needed,
in Luhansk, in Donetsk and other cities
in eastern Ukraine."

REBEL ROUT?

Ukrainian officials have painted a picture of a separatist force
that is on the run and starting to panic - though rebel fighters
Reuters reporters have spoken to in Donetsk say they
are determined to stand firm.

In the past week, three senior rebel leaders have been removed
from their posts, pointing to mounting disagreement over how to
turn the tide of the fighting back in their favour.

The fighting has taken a heavy human toll.

The United Nations said this month that an estimated
2,086 people, including civilians and combatants, had been killed
in the conflict. That figure nearly doubled since the end of
July, when Ukrainian forces stepped up their offensive.

In Donetsk, which like Luhansk is now ringed
by Kiev's forces, artillery fire has struck apartment
buildings, killing and wounding residents, according to Reuters
reporters. Officials in Kiev deny they are firing heavy
weapons at residential areas.